Lately I have been re-evaluating my whole musical perspective. To be honest I have lived two lives for the past 6 years. One of those lives was spent in the world of “art” music. Some of you may know that I am finishing a Doctorate in Music Composition at Rice University. If you know anything about music schools and especially the Composition Departments at prestigious Music Schools or Conservatories you know that they are, or at least think they are, an elite group of people. They basically think that anything pop or rock is at the bottom of the food chain musically. (Although the professors always have secret crushes on the Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan, and Led Zeppelin…sometimes) I know this may be hard to believe but I spent a summer at the Aspen music festival and to my AMAZEMENT all the people in my elite piano studio did not know who BILLY JOEL was. The composition students in these conservatories spend there time stretching the musical norms, pushing boundaries of instruments, programs, and ideas so they have no time for pop culture. It is a different world, altogether. If that elitism seems far-fetched then imagine what a Screen Actor or Shakespearean actor thinks about acting on soap-operas, or commercials, or even worse, Protestant church dramas. This academia is the environment that I have spent most of my time for the past 13 years. 13 years ago, I was snobbing right along with the best of them.
Growing up, I had always loved the Beatles, Jim Croche, Barbara Streisand, Bon Jovi and the rest of those hair band guys. When I discovered Bach on the Guitar at the age of 13 it was the Great Classical Masters for me with no looking back. I entered a School of Music on a Piano Scholarship at 17 and began to think that all of those great Folk and Rock artists in my youth mere children at the feet of Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky.
It wasn’t until I was finishing my bachelors at 21, listening/studying for an exam in the music school’s “listening lounge” that I, just for fun, ran onto a Johnny Cash album, dropped the needle, and became mesmerized. I was in that moment reintroduced to the great Art form of American folk music through one of its greatest Artists. The following 5 years also saw a return for me to my faith and Church. Along the way I was introduced to Rich Mullins’ Liturgy and Legacy album and the doors were thrown wide open to me for Christian music… I thought.
After I wore out our Rich Mullins and PFR CDs, I decided again that I mostly hated all Christian music. (Secretly making a little time on the side for “Go West” by Smitty) Despite my disappointment, I still craved music that Glorified God. I returned to Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven and Bach to fill my soul in that area. So the two lives I have lived have been writing music for the “Art Music” crowd, to which God has blessed me with a great reception with international performances, and in life number 2, -Writing Christian music that sounds like Christian music. I have for the past few years, up until this last year, justifying all these things by saying that I was compartmentalizing the different genres and would happily go along writing in the two styles. I do not dislike some of these songs during this time, but I was mainly writing Christian music to try to get something published or please the little old ladies, therefore molding to a norm. I always felt that these two worlds were as far across the galaxy from each other as you can get musically.
In this last Album, Bitter Kiss, with the help of our fantastically talented producer Josh Moore (Caedmon’s Call) I began the journey of merging those two worlds. The result was something that has practically put me in a state of little-kid-at-Disney-World excitement sometimes. I had more fun on this project than probably anything I have ever done. The best thing about it is that I feel a whole new world of possibilities has opened up for what we are doing. It is just the beginning. I am no longer actively hoping or perusing a big fat record deal or publishing deal. I am no longer trying to fit in a genre. It is altogether about making Art.
God does not make Christian musicians, lawyers, preachers, actors, politicians (especially politicians). God makes artists, or “beings that create for the purpose of beauty.” It is one the most distinguishing factors that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. This is what we are; all of us have this to offer. We are artists. A clue into why God made the Universe is in our desire to create. It was his desire, not need, to create. And create He did. It is not a need like hunger or sex; it is something deeper and more mysterious.
We WANT to create, for the sheer joy of it. These reasons can be mistaken for needs. If we see it as a need then that need can translate into insecurity or depression. How many of us have felt inadequate when we are not doing something we feel is not as good as other people. This is because we think that we NEED to do what we are doing. If we do something for the sheer joy of it, then it never becomes a mode or vehicle for depression. We are alive. I write a song because it is a desire of mine. A desire created out of my state of self-awareness given directly from God. Our ability to create is also one of the most striking resemblances between our Father and us. So….All that just to say this: In the world of Academia, I used to create music without boundaries, without rules, completely. I would write Christian music for that genre, and in the style of that genre. I am no longer doing that. I am creating full force and free.
I am not saying that I am going to write a-tonal Christian music, (although I might sometime) I am saying that I will no longer put boundaries on any song or music that I compose, in any genre.
This is very exciting for me. A kind of new beginning.
Thanks to those reading who have encouraged this growth by loving both kinds of music. Coming to my crazy Rice University recitals, loving and encouraging then sitting the next day in Church and showing the same kindness as we sing something written for the Church.
25 comments:
BTW, I hope none of this sounds pompous or arrogant. I have a tremendous amount of respect for so many Christian Artists and for their music. I always want to position myself in a place where I am learning and growing.
Years ago someone asked Pavoratti, after one of his performances "just when the last time you learned something new about singing" Pararotti answered humbly "five minutes ago"
Cheers.
You pompous ass!
You caught me. Its true. I am hopelessy better than everyone else. I might as well face up to it. Thank you my friend...
If there is anything this job has taught me, it is to be so thankful for my successes and my losses. I also used to be less accepting of popular music, but after one spends time trying to sing professionally, one realizes how precious it is to get paid to do what you love. I now lovingly refer to myself as a vocal whore (only vocally) b/c I need to express myself and eat. :) When I lived in Nashville last year, I would have given anything to be a country singer, but why was I there...to sing with Nashville Opera. Does this make me less of an opera singer, absolutely not! It makes me more of one b/c I know how to find emotion in music that has been sung for hundreds of years and make it my own by loving a genre that thrives on text and lyrics. This is why music should not be shunned not matter what the genre.
On another note...
Even Pavarotti, one of the most influential and unmatched opera singers feels the hunger to improve on what others think of as perfection. Isn't that really why we do this...to push our talents as far as possible and all the while learning continually. Knowing we can get through it b/c God has given us the gift and strength.
If there is anything this job has taught me, it is to be so thankful for my successes and my losses. I also used to be less accepting of popular music, but after one spends time trying to sing professionally, one realizes how precious it is to get paid to do what you love. I now lovingly refer to myself as a vocal whore (only vocally) b/c I need to express myself and eat. :) When I lived in Nashville last year, I would have given anything to be a country singer, but why was I there...to sing with Nashville Opera. Does this make me less of an opera singer, absolutely not! It makes me more of one b/c I know how to find emotion in music that has been sung for hundreds of years and make it my own by loving a genre that thrives on text and lyrics. This is why music should not be shunned not matter what the genre.
On another note...
Even Pavarotti, one of the most influential and unmatched opera singers feels the hunger to improve on what others think of as perfection. Isn't that really why we do this...to push our talents as far as possible and all the while learning continually. Knowing we can get through it b/c God has given us the gift and strength.
As a Shakespearean actor and opera singer, I can say without a hint of embarrasment that My Name is Earl and Coldplay are two of my favorite things in the world. There's a reason it's called popular entertainment.
(For the record, I also love to watch a good play and listen to some Verdi.)
And, uh, atonal Christian music? You mean Jaci Velasquez?
oh seth, you make me smile sometimes. I'm sitting in front of my computer, fully decided on pulling an all nighter, and for what? Art...the pure misery and joy of art. My hand is swollen and my mind is worn out yet I smile. I smile at the pure fact that, i fullfilled some yearning that is a part of my very being. Now, does that change the fact that i'm miffed at my art professor? No. But i agree with you, that we create for the sheer joy of beauty.
I think the "elite-ism" thinking is in every artistic field. I know when i walk though the music building i'm looked down upon because i'm not a music major AND i'm in marching band. On the same lines, art majors consider cartooning a "bad" form of art...though i believe it takes just as much skill to create cartoons. There was a point i was making here, but i honestly don't remember it any more...my clock is showing 45 min before i have to hit my 8:00 am class.
Can i quote you, on the artistic parts of this entry? I like it alot.
I need to clarify a bit.
I do not think pop culture stupid, art music smart. Quite the contrary. Coldplay is more original than almost any composer that has risen from the ashes of tonality in the past 20 years. My name isEarl is probably more interesting and entertaining than any opera written since Susannah hit in the 50's or Some of Glass's minimalist operas.
I am talking about originality. An individual voice. One can even be derivitive and still have an individual voice. Before when I wrote music for the Church, or Christian music, I constantly modeled after other people to get the effect that I wanted or what I thought people wanted. "People want another worship song with 4 on the floor that sounds like U2". This is precisely the problem with the CCM world today. So many artists not being themselves,
Well let me put it this way. In the beginning, CCM had something very cool going. Keith, Rich, Amy, M.W. Smith, they all had original sounds. Bob Dylan LOVED Keith Green's music. Micheal W. won a grammy in the mainstream world. Amy Grant is still one of the most successful mainstream artitst of all time. So the CCM industry got bigger, it got bought out by major labels. The heads of these labels became more and more concerned with meeting quotas. Instead of going out and finding new and original artists they started to search for artitst that sounded like established artists in the main-stream world. CCM became a knock-off. When there were those rare few times that CCM artists showed originality they split off from the CCM world so not to be identified with a knock-off genre. i.e. Mutemath.
Now there were still a shining few who made it out with their artistry in tact, but anytime you hear of a label exec. telling Rich Mullins to get a hair cutt and write music that sounds more like N'Sync, then you start to see when and why the motives changed. Rich basically cussed them out and grew a beard.(btw way these shining few are getting no radio play today)
CCM became a plastic verstion of a real thing. Plastic fruit. You mentioned Coldplay, I heard a song on the radio yesterday that was filled with production LIFTED from a Coldplay album. Shamelessly copied. Not chaneled, not inspired, but C-O-P-I-E-D. This, my friends, is what I was guilty of unfortunately. Becoming a slave to this mold. Thinking that no one would listen to the music that I WANTED to write.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with someone sitting down and saying, "hey I think I'll write a country song." And i suppose that there is really nothing wrong with someone sitting down to write a ....mainstream CCM song in all its plastic glory that everyone will forget in 3 months. But right now, this is not me. Not where I am. God is pushing me. Pushing my limits like lindsey was saying.
Also, I have been dying to see "My Name is Earl" but our boob-tube has been on the fritz.
Don't worry, bud. I didn't misunderstand you. I'm just saying I'm there with you. Earl is greatness. Woo hoo!
By the way, I think one of the most telling signs that 'Christian' retailers are soul-less whores is the "you'll like" chart in their music department. As in:
"If you like Nickleback, you'll like Jeremy Camp!"
They don't hide their unoriginality... they flaunt it! Aaaaaarrrrrgh!
BUT this copy-catting started in mainstream music not in CCM. CCM copied the copying of the copiers in mainstream (what the?).
My publisher is a mainstream publisher (BMG) and so I get sent e-mails weekly telling what Jessica Simpson or Robbie Williams or whomever is looking for. The list that gets sent is creatively called the "who's looking list.."
On this list, beside the artist's name, a&R contact and album release/production dates is a description of what the artist is looking for in songs. Stuff like "Sheryl Crow meets Jewel" or "Nirvana as a boy band." Sometimes they'll even name specific songs or verses of songs as references. That, my friend, is copying.
CCM labels distribute such lists as well - they learned to from their mainstream owners. No wonder.
Oh, the stuff you'll never read in CCM Magazine.
SG
Seth, since I am a fan of your music on Bitter Kiss, I CAN'T WAIT to see what comes next. WOO HOO! to new beginnings. A bigger WOO HOO! to NO RULES!!! Full force and free, I like that. Go for it, man.
And yes, fellow bloggers, WOO HOO! absolutely IS a valid term of celebration. Try it at home sometime. But especially when blogging.
Oh man thats Juicy stuff. Thanks for sharing.
I guess its true that mainstream does not equal original or honest. It just seems like we get more honesty in the mainstream world. But maybe not.
But what about this: A few years ago a young lady by the name of Nora swept the grammys with a very simple and magical record. AND you actually heard her tunes on the Radio (after she won everything). A completely different style than the sulking girl-teen-punk rocker that got beat out that year whose music was saturating the radio waves.
Do you see that kind of thing ever happening at the buzzard awards???
I know that everybody does it, mainstream included and especially, but I think it stands out more in a smaller pond like Xian music. That's again not to say that copycatting is more prevalant in Xian music, just that it's more noticable when there are fewer artists in the genre.
And yes, it is still strange to refer to Xian music as a genre.
Woo hoo!
Conversely, now that I think about it, that's why I get a good deal of satisfaction when I hear an original voice in Xian music... it's more noticable. I really do enjoy it when I can get it.
Again Seth, I like what I hear on the website. Be sure to tell Amber that too.
It also stands out more because it is a copy of a copy according to Shaun.
Cach, Hey man, thanks for the encouragement, I'll tell Amber. I think its time Amber introduces herself to the blogging realm. Hey, next time we are in Waco, we all need to get together and break bread at Crickets or something.
Fancy, you made my night.
and God Bless us.... everyone.
You mean the crap stands out more, right? I got lost in pronouns.
And please, please let me know the next time you're in Waco. Or tell me when you've got time and I'll give you guys an excuse to come up. It'd be great to meet you in person and see Amber again. I think you've gotten the impression by now that I think the absolute world of your wife. She's a great gal. Come on up, man!
"that's why I get a good deal of satisfaction when I hear an original voice in Xian music... it's more noticable."
I don't know what I meant at that moment in time. I think I became distracted by the smell of Chocalate Chip cookies in the distant kitchen.
What I meant to do was emphasize your point here by saying that; If they ARE actually original, then it even stands out all the more because not only is the rest of what we hear a shameless copy of something mainstream, according to Shaun, it is really a copy of a copy so we are getting a double whammy as far as its plasticity. Anyway,... we will definitely get together whe we come up. She is gearing up for a blog here in the next few days.
I'm all a-tiwitter with anticipation...
On Nora...
A different style? Not at all. Just at a different time. She plays cover tunes you know? Doesn't write in a way that hasn't been written before when she does write either.
And she's beautiful so that helped. As did millions in marketing dollars. Popularity is purchased my friend. An illusion.
I know.
Alright, another example. My new freind Sufjan. No where NEAR anything like anything else, exept maybe John Adams, Not only does he write the music but arranges, and plays half the blasted instruments plus he makes the Rolling Stone's top 10 list.
enlightening stuff. thanks for the input.
Can't we say that music has been copied and republished since the beginning of music? Just because it is considered a classical (genre not era) piece of music, it doesn't mean someone didn't copy it. I think the goal of what you are saying is to be the "original" so your music sustains the test of time. One can not think Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Verdi, etc. didn't have copiers or copy themselves. The only difference is that they are said to be influenced by the other composer. What sustains a composer isn't the originalty (b/c really what is original) it is creating new ways to use the old.
For instance, we don't have different eras of music b/c someone just decided to label different years of music with the titles of Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. The composers wanted to push music and make it different through instrumentation, form, keys, etc. Once they had been copied by others, they were challenged to make something different, "original" and thus, here comes a new era. Everything grows out of the original, but only the original will sustain itself.
Look at popular music. The 80's gave us a large number of Hair Bands (some of which I love...don't ask) and in the middle of that was a band named U2. Their music and style by no means matched the hair bands, and thus they are still amazing today. They never sound like their surrounds but always evolve to sound like themselves. They still follow a formula of popular music, but make different parts original.
The ideas is to evolve with the influences and not worry about the copies b/c in the end, no one remembers the copies.
I think you are spot on Lindsey. The classical era was the biggest copycat era the world has ever known. However ,It was considered an honor of someone took one of your themes and did a theme and variations using it.
It was his individual voice that sang through any idea or practice of copying. The kind of Copying I am thinking about would look something like this in the 18th century:
Mozart, writes Don Giovanni. the next thing you know, the Church decides to employ 5 composers to not only write an opera about Don Giovanni, sounding similar enough to Don Giovanni as not to get sued, execpt changing the morality of Don Giovanni to a Messianic figure, then have the composers dress up just like, talk just like, and act JUST LIKE Mozart. All the while KNOWING that no one would know that they have encouraged a Knock-off of Mozart because they know that the Churches audience would only come to their concerts never meeting the real Mozart and never meeting the real composers behind the fakes who are imitating Mozart.
It is every composers greatest goal to find his or her's individual voice. John Corigliano Jumped onstage after a rehearsal of an overture he wrote, went to the conducters stand, and scribbled out his name and wrote in "Lenoard-Copeland." from his two biggest influences. Yes composer's sound alike sometimes but they strive to be themselves all the same. I would never misake a Bach fuge with a Beethoven fuge. We are all influenced by what we listen to. Mozart had a musical memory the was like flypaper as you well know.
I am fully aware that I am influenced by Dylan, Paul Simon, The Beatles, John Adams, George Crumb, actually who ever the heck I listen to. They are in my blood.
A quick story. We went to Nashville a few years back. Visited a few publishers. The woman at Word music looked me in the eyes and said. You are a terrific songwriter. KEEP WRITING WHO YOU ARE. we just do not have a place for you right now. She shook her head, looked at the floor and said, all we are told to look for right now is the next Switchfoot. Johnny Cash's response would have been, "whats wrong with the one you've got?"
We left pretty bummed, but now we know this was a blessing in disguise. If we would have signed on to a publishing deal at that time I proabably would have been so naive that I would be churning out nirvana/boyband songs right now, just to pay the bills, and probably would be miserable.
There ARE original voices, they just are not being heard. What i am trying to say is that maybe my songs wont be on the radio anytime soon I am OKAY with that. God has me, the Lord leads where he wants. He provides for our needs and I am at peace in Him. And that is a good place for me to make some good music, no matter who I may sound a little like that day
I completely see your point about the Mozartian Church copies doing an angelic Giovanni. It would be very frustrating to know something is a copy, and all the while, people, who are less exposed to other things, think it is original. Then to be told, "We really need you to be like XYZ composer/artist to make money." Then knowing as you write, you are only copying and not fulfilling your own desires and creativity.
I do think it was a blessing the woman at Word turned you away. Since I started auditioning for professional gigs about 3 1/2 years ago, I have learned to love what God has planned for me next. I used to get so upset when I didn't get a job I sang for, but now I just think, "Okay, God what better things do you have planned for me next?" So far, I am pleased with everything He has blessed me with and learned from everything I didn't get. Seeing how you would have had to churn out music that didn't represent you as an artist just shows us He knows what we need to make us grow in our careers and lives.
On another note...
I do love to discuss music b/c since I graduated, I have had withdrawal. Thanks for giving me things to ponder and discuss.
Oh hey lindsey! just caught this last comment.
MY PLEASURE!!
really fun to talk about. Thanks for reading and for the encouragement.
Keep commenting! great insight and discussion.
Cheers
(amber says hello!)
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